John George Kemeny facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John George Kemeny
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| 13th President of Dartmouth College | |
| In office 1970–1981 |
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| Preceded by | John Sloan Dickey |
| Succeeded by | David T. McLaughlin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 31, 1926 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | December 26, 1992 (aged 66) Hanover, New Hampshire, United States |
| Education | Princeton University (BA), (PhD) in Mathematics |
| Awards | Computer Pioneer Award (1985) |
John George Kemeny; May 31, 1926 – December 26, 1992) was a Hungarian-Jewish born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator best known for co-developing the BASIC programming language in 1964 with Thomas E. Kurtz. Kemeny served as the 13th President of Dartmouth College from 1970 to 1981 and pioneered the use of computers in college education. Kemeny chaired the presidential commission that investigated the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.
According to György Marx he was one of The Martians, (a group of prominent Hungarian scientists of Jewish descent (mostly, but not exclusively, physicists and mathematicians) who emigrated to the United States in the early half of the 20th century).
Contents
Career
Kemeny was appointed to the Dartmouth Mathematics Department as a full professor in 1953, at the age of 27. Two years later he became chairman of the Department, and held this post until 1967.
Kemeny and Kurtz pioneered the use of computers for ordinary people. After early experiments, they invented the BASIC programming language in 1964, as well as one of the world's first time-sharing systems, the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS). In 1974, the American Federation of Information Processing Societies gave an award to Kemeny and Kurtz at the National Computer Conference for their work on BASIC and time-sharing.
Kemeny was president of Dartmouth from 1970 to 1981, and continued to teach undergraduate courses and to do research and publish papers during his time as president. He presided over the coeducation of Dartmouth in 1972. Kemeny made Dartmouth a pioneer in student use of computers, equating computer literacy with reading literacy. In 1982 he returned to teaching full-time.
In 1983, Kemeny and Kurtz co-founded a company called True BASIC, Inc. to market True BASIC, an updated version of the language.
Death
John Kemeny died at the age of 66, the result of heart failure in Hanover, New Hampshire on December 26, 1992. He had lived in Etna, near the Dartmouth Campus.
Images for kids
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Commemorative plaque to John George Kemeny. It is affixed to the wall of his former domicile.
See also
In Spanish: John G. Kemeny para niños
